Sunday, November 4, 2012

Integrating Technology and Literacy

Tar River Reading Council Workshop

The Tar Valley Reading Council Workshop for October was about ways that
computer technology and literacy can be integrated in the classroom. The
workshop contained many ideas in using ipad applications for students and
teachers. The workshop was located at South Greenville Elementary in Greenville,
North Carolina. The speaker was Lauren Boucher. One application that was
discussed was Nearpod which is a computer application in which teachers and
students can create presentations with pdf files and mp4 video files. You can
insert a draw it in which the teacher can have the students draw out a diagram
to practice handwriting, if the students have a paragraph in which the teacher
wants the students to pick adjectivesthis can be done. If there is one student that shows excellent work, the
teacher can share the work with the entire class as an example for the other
students to follow. The student’s identity will not be known and up to 10
presentations can be stored. Educreations is a white board
application which allows teachers to build lessons. The teacher can record his
or herself by annotating documents. For a word family lesson the teacher would
talk to the students about a picture word that comes up on the screen.Students can be called up to the screen to tell
what the first letter for each picture word that is showing. The teacher can
have another lesson on the ipad where students can write the words. Pictures can
be brought in from a camera roll that is straight from the teacher’s drop box
account. Pictures can be accessed from the web by clicking on the picture and
it pops up on the screen. Students can use this to do their own video tutorials
and it can be sent to their teacher’s website for students to view when they
are absent from school. Storylines for schools is an
application in which several students could play a game by telling a story. One
person makes a title or a phrase, the next person illustrates what the title or
phrase is about then, the next person has to guess what the title or phrase is
by the illustration. This game would be
great to run home a study of idioms during a literature block. In this way the
children are not only learning, but they are having fun while learning.Scribble Press is an
application that will allow students and teachers to create their own books.
Templates are available in which the student can just fill in the blank or they
can create their own story from scratch. They can insert pictures. It can be
added to ibook on the ipad. It can be inserted as a pdf and printed or the book
can be emailed which will generate a link. Students can write their own caption
to their books. Teachers could write their own stories at their student’s level
for the reading groups to go along with the topic of study.Another application that can be
facilitated on the ipad for students is called Sparkle Fish. Students pick a
story and the application reads the story to them. There are about five stories
that are free. The rest have to be paid in advance in order to access them.
This application could be used to teach the different parts of speech. Students
can pick a story to record, and then record the missing words. The application
then tells the story out loud with the words added that the student recorded.
The student could be asked to write their own fairy tale with this application.
Last, interactive E Books are a
great tool for students to work on their reading. There are some books that are
free, and the rest of the books can be accessed for a fee. One E Book is called
Magic Town which is an application that students can earn free books by
visiting the site often. The students can also earn new characters by entering
the site often. Once the lion is met in magic town, the lion will bring free
books in Magic Town. The E Books are interactive to grab the children’s
interest and help them acquire a love for reading.Links that can be made to the
reading course is that teachers can find these technological tools useful
during center time to teach the students their sight words. Students can learn
to write sentences in a fun way by making a game out of learning, and become
more proficient readers through interactive play.

If you would like to attend these workshops,you may find information in the link below for the locations and times: